An anthropological reconstruction of historic population movements in Tuscaloosa County using cemetery analysis

Abstract:

Data were gathered from 16 cemeteries in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama to see if historic population movements, like the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural areas of the South in the twentieth century, could be detected in cemeteries. To answer this question data were collected from White and Black cemeteries to understand the organization of family groups in cemeteries through the use of family plots and familial references. It was expected that Black cemeteries in rural areas would contain the fewest family plots and references, because this group was influenced by out-migration to the greatest extent. However, Black and White cemeteries in urban areas and White cemeteries in rural areas were expected to have the most family plots as these groups were less affected by out-migration. Numerous maps photographs, and data tables were compiled for each cemetery. White urban cemeteries had the most plots, Black urban cemeteries had the next highest, then White rural cemeteries, and Black rural cemeteries had the fewest plots. The plot counts from the cemeteries were then statistically analyzed based on the date of the plots and the location of the cemeteries. Interesting family burial patterns were also noted in some of the Black cemeteries that contained partially raised vault burials aligned in a stair-step pattern. Out-migration from the area appears to have prompted a decrease in family plots and the development of a new form of burial less reliant on stable immediate families in black cemeteries.

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